Here are my final reflections on our journey through ﻿OLTD 505﻿. I struggled with this last activity, as there was so much I wanted to try. As a result, I found myself scattered in my thinking, so I decided to go back over areas that I hadn’t had enough time to explore during prior weeks. I was surprised at how much more I learned and discovered (and how much I had missed)… although this shouldn’t really be surprising, given the affordances offered by the Web. Unfortunately, I ended up doing too much exploration and not enough creation (it’s funny how I can’t seem to get the right balance). Anyway, the following video isn’t flashy, fancy, or particularly creative, but it has helped me to consolidate a few of my takeaways from the discussions, videos, readings, and insightful comments that have lit up my notifications and feeds over the past six weeks. Feel free to fast forward or pause as needed!

My OLTD 505 Summary of Learning

Part 1

Below is a link to the PowerPoint Slide Presentation with live links (view in 'Present' mode).

I’d like to say “thank you” for all the kind comments and mentions that I’ve received throughout OLTD 505. Each time I read one of your generous comments, I am overwhelmed by the inherent kindness of educators. We truly have a caring, sharing cohort. Yet, while I’ve felt the positive energy of support, I’ve also felt the wariness of self-doubt (this has been noticeable in the reflections and comments of others, and I’ve also felt it from within). From my experience, self-doubt seems be exhibited by many of us who journey into the ‘open’. (I wish I had saved the supportive emails from those encouraging me when I first ventured into the open). My point is, learning is a continuum, and it is the learning and progress that counts. It is inevitable that as our networked world progresses, the likelihood of learners starting at the same point in their learning journey is very slim. Therefore, in my opinion, sharing, collaboration, and collective knowledge will become increasingly important as we progress in this digital world, and we are only as good as the collective whole. It is the collaborative thinking and sense-making, and what we do with this collective intelligence, that really counts. As Sandra Dailey so eloquently noted in her last blog post, “We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean, but the ocean would be less because of that missing drop” (Mother Teresa).So, thank you Cohort 3 for supporting my thinking. I think we’ve done a great job of moving forward as a collective group, and I have no doubt that together we can demonstrate the positive results of contributing to the greater good. This contribution, I feel, is fundamental to open education and connected learning. Finally, a huge thank you to Dr. Alec Couros for his ability to intrigue, inspire, and motivate others to become better, not just for themselves, but for those around them, and for the generations depending on them to make good, ethical, and moral decisions with regard to navigating and contributing to the networked world. Thank you!

A Final Comment on Curation

As most of you have noticed, I have spent a great deal of time over the past few weeks researching and thinking about curation. I finally found a 30 second video clip that sums up nicely my concluding thoughts on this topic.

Curation: “It’s about inspiring people to make something, be something, think something, do something… to change themselves… so we just might change the world.” (Curation Is Not About Ownership)

To My Amazing OLTD 505 Colleagues Who Dare to Dream

“You, you may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one”. Here's to making the world a better place to share.

Wow - thanks Fenella! Excellent video and power point. I will be accessing the links from your Thinglink for a long time. I really appreciate how supportive you have been of my own learning and certainly your various posts and blogs have been helpful.

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Fenella

6/15/2015 23:23:07

Thank you, Edward. Your posts have helped me too, and I have appreciated the mutual support. We've had some good conversations on various educational topics, including the politics of education. :)
I admire the way you are able to carefully consider a topic from both sides. Greatly appreciated!

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Jane

6/15/2015 16:22:44

Wow Fenella, I have to agree with Edward on this one- your summary of learning is a wonderful compilation highlighting all the major stops you took along your way. I love how you used Thinglink and added all the links that were relevant to your journey. It is so amazing, that each one of us is taking the same course, yet the roads we each traveled on to get to the end were all so different. Your blog is such a wealth of knowledge and information, and I, like Edward, will be coming back to it often. Thank you.

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Fenella

6/15/2015 23:37:01

Thanks, Jane. I had never used Thinglink before, and it looked like a cool tool to try (doing a video mashup seemed a bit overwhelming to me, and yet you, my friend, managed beautifully!). Your positive comments and encouraging feedback along the way have truly helped. You are right, it is so interesting how each of us has been able to explore and travel their own road along this educational learning journey. I guess that's what makes open education so authentic and powerful. Could this be considered 'rhizomatic learning'? ... I think so.

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Derek

6/16/2015 09:54:47

Fenella- I am in awe of your summary of your learning and I like the thinklink tool. Very well done.
Thanks for that Find OER link too- just when I thought I had seen everything the horizon gives way to another horizon.

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Fenella

6/16/2015 17:18:38

Thank you so much, Derek. I truly appreciate the kind feedback. You are right when you say, "just when I thought I had seen everything the horizon gives way to another horizon". How true! On the one hand, we will never figure everything out (or see everything), and that seems rather overwhelming, but on the other hand, thank goodness for new horizons! Thanks again for taking the time to comment on my blog. Have a great summer and a well deserved rest!